Being a Contractor
by nesha-chan
Summary: This is my story about Hei and my OC Anna as they work together on missions and learn about themselves and what it means to be a contractor in a world where Pandora is in control. It may get a bit dark, and the rating is subject to change. I OWN NOTHING!
1. Chapter 1

I wander down the street unsure of how I got here. Well, not here as in this specific location. That's easy enough to figure out. I mean here in my life. When did my life fall apart? What could I have done differently? *flash* BOOM! The sky opens up and pours down on me. I keep walking. The gutters are quickly flooded. Scraps of paper and bits of food are swept away into the drain. Food. My stomach growls. It's been two days since I had a meal. In front of me, a group of people are huddled around a fire in a trash can. I near them, and they begin their cat calls. I'm not desperate enough for food to take them up on their offers. I keep on waking.

I near the business district. Usually at this time of night, the only people here are prostitutes, pimps and minor underworld figures, but I know this is where I will find him. I have to find him. I pass creatures of the night. I pass restaurant owners closing their shops for the night. I pass hotels where gentlemen take their ladies when they don't want their wives to find out and shops that are only open at night because of their explicit nature. Still, I keep walking.

Finally, I reach the building. It is a rather inauspicious building without a sign. I enter through the front door. It creaks. Inside, the building looks abandoned. I walk through the lobby. I walk up a flight of stairs. I know exactly what I will find when I reach him. I walk down a hallway. I reach a door with only the number 201 on it and open it.

"You're late." His words come as no surprise to me.

"I was detained." I gave a simple excuse. His dark eyes clearly said he didn't believe me.

"Go clean up," he said as he threw me a towel and clean clothes, "You look like you've just lost a fight." I began walking toward the bathroom. He jumped up and grabbed my arm. I flinched. "What's wrong?" He asked looking genuinely concerned for the first time since I met him. I tried to pull away and nearly screamed in pain.

"It's nothing." I stated as we had been trained to do. He looked as if he was almost angry with me.

"Don't lie to me Anna." He growled. "What happened?"

"I told you I was detained." I stated.

"That's not a reason for this." He began to really get angry. "What did they do to you?" I pull away from him and try not to let him see how much it hurts, but tears well up in my eyes anyway.

"What do they do to everyone like us? We're contractors, Hei. That's all we'll ever be now that Pandora is in charge." All the fire and passion seemed to go out of him.

"You should clean up. You don't want anyone else seeing you look like that." He says as though he doesn't know what else to say.

"Thanks," I mumble and wander into the bathroom.

I look in the mirror. My normally vibrant red hair is matted with blood and dirt. My green eyes look almost grey and lifeless. I have bruises everywhere. My lip is swollen and bloody, and one eye is almost swollen shut. Hei was wrong I didn't lose a fight. There was no fight. I couldn't have fought and still made it out alive. I remove my clothes and step into the shower.

The water is cold, and the pressure hurts every part of me that it touches. I get out as quickly as possible, and change into the clothes he gave me. It's just an oversized pair of athletic shorts and a cotton shirt. It figures that he forgot undergarments, but I'm to tired to care. I brush my hair and go out to has food ready, but he waited to eat with me. It's just soup, but it's better than anything I've had in a while.

We eat in silence. I get up to begin cleaning. "It's fine," he says. "I'll take care of it. You need to rest."

I thank him and climb into the only be in the room. Normally, I'd care about sharing a bed with him, but I just want to sleep. Hei gets into bed a few minute later.

"Did you mean what you said about contractors earlier?" He asks knowing it will be nearly impossible for me to sleep.

"Mmhmm,"

"What makes you think that?"

Something tells me that this isn't a question I can just ignore. I sigh. "People have been told that contractors are emotionless killing machines since they first appeared. People are trained to fear us the second they know what we are. We're not even human. Anyone can do what they like to us without consequence. We have no future."

"Do you really think we're emotionless?"

"I think that we have to be that way to survive." I close my eyes and go to sleep. I know Hei says something, but I don't hear it. For just a few hours, I can go back to a time when the world was good and beautiful - a time when people weren't worried about contractors or Pandora. In the morning, we will discuss our job for the next day, but, for now, we will sleep and forget that we are so different from everyone else. We will forget that everything we knew about our world changed in less than a second. We will forget that we are hiding from the police and from Pandora, and we just be people just like everyone else.

Morning comes earlier than either of us would have liked. We get dressed, pack our things and leave. We walk through the city for a while before arriving at a park. On a bench sits an older man, a cat, and a girl.

The man speaks first. "You're two days late," he rants, "The Syndicate is on my ass now, so you two better have a really good reason why this took so damn long."

I open my mouth to speak, but Hei speaks first. "She was detained."

"Clearly," the man says as he gestures to my face. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to get me killed."

"That's enough Huang," the cat snaps. The cat is another contractor. He can send his spirit into an animal's body. Currently, he's a cat because that's where he was when his body was destroyed.

"Do you at least have the package?" he demands rather than asks. I toss a manila envelope to him, and he harrumphs. "At least you did one thing right," he says just loud enough for Hei and I to hear. We pretend we didn't.

Hei and I sit down on the bench next to the girl. The cat walks only my lap and curls around himself to sleep. I start petting the top of his head and his back. Mao is a good cat and a very good friend even if he doesn't like to admit it.

The girl speaks for the first time since we arrived. "I'm glad both of you made it back safely." Her face betrays no emotion as she speaks, but she means it all the same.

"Thank you, Yin," Hei says and gives her a piece of candy he must have bought while waiting for me.

Huang's phone rings. He stands up to answer it and steps away from the group while talking quietly. He comes back less than a minute later. "I've got another mission for you." he states.


	2. Chapter 2

Huang went over the details of our mission. Apparently, we were to break into some Yakuza leader's house and steal some computer file that had information regarding The Gate. We were given new ID cards and information about our aliases. I was to become the new love interest for Mr. Nakamura. I glanced at his picture. He wasn't ugly, but he was still a middle aged man with a fetish for underage girls. It wouldn't be difficult to catch his eye. Hei was to become his body guard. Hei was to steal the files while he was distracted with me. Then, we get out.

_**-Meanwhile-**_

"Miss Kirihara, I have the reports from last night."

"Thank you. That's all for now." the female detective said. The intern slipped out of the room and left her to her reports. _Hmm…. That's interesting. That star hasn't been active in while. The international community had decided she disappeared. What's PI329 up to?_

_**-Back with Hei and Anna-**_

We were given a day to recover from our previous mission. As we walked back to our apartments, Hei decided to strike up a conversation with me. "Are you ready for this mission?" He wanted to make small talk this time.

I shrugged, "I guess. Are you?"

"Sure." He said nonchalantly. I could tell something was on his mind, but he didn't say anything more. We walked in silence until we reached my apartment. I invited him in for a meal. We were in the kitchen preparing food before he spoke again. "Why were you late last time?"

"I was d-"

He cut me off, "You were detained. What else happened?"

"Does it matter?" I really did not want to answer that question.

"Yes!" Hei was beginning to get frustrated with my lack of cooperation.

"I didn't know you cared that much." I said just to get under his skin. "That's not something contractors normally do." He pinned me to a wall with one arm and glared at me. My eyes flew open in pain as my previous injuries hit the wall. I gasped, but managed not to cry out.

"Was anything compromised?" He seemed livid at my stubbornness and concerned for my welfare at the same time.

"No." I said flatly.

"Are you sure?' He asked as he raised me higher against the wall and pushed me into it farther.

My wounds reopened, and a small sound escaped my mouth. It sounded pathetic, almost like a mouse or other small animal. "Of course I'm sure," I said with all the confidence I could gather. "Do you really think I would be here if anything was compromised?"

He set me down and continued chopping vegetables. I stood there for a while to regain my self-control. It took all my strength to keep from falling over. Hei dumped the food into a pot of boiling water, walked over to me, grabbed my arm, and lifted my shirt up until it was just under my bra. His face contorted when he saw the bruises across my stomach, sides, and back and the (mostly) small cuts across my back. "Who?" he demanded.

"Pandora." I said flatly. He dragged me to my bed, pulled off my shirt, and took out the first aid kit that was sitting on my dresser. He fixed what he could then told me to lay down on my stomach. He unfastened my bra and continued in his efforts to put me back together.

"Put some clothes on when you're ready. I'll finish cooking."

_**-Hei POV-**_

I turned around and walked toward the kitchen. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. She lost a fight? No. That couldn't be right. Those weren't injuries from a fight. Whoever detained her clearly tortured her. The last time I had seen any thing like that was in South America. Anna didn't deserve that. She's so young - actually, I had no idea how old she is. I didn't even know if Anna was her real name.

She came around the corner a few minutes later wearing an over sized T-shirt and sweats. I couldn't believe how much smaller she looked. Her red hair fell over her shoulders and upper body and ended at her waist. She looked like a teenager - a young teenager. Where were her parents. Did they know that she was participating in dangerous missions for The Syndicate? Did they care?

I set her food down on the table in front of her. She mumbled her thanks and began. I sat down and started shoveling food into my mouth. She picked at her food for a few minutes. My stomach rumbled, and she pushed her plate toward me. She began cleaning up while I finished eating. We mumbled our goodnights, and I left.


End file.
